Large format book for adults. Great photographic illustrations.

I loved the photographs in this book. The deep sea is always a fascinating subject, and the more photographs we have of it, the cooler it gets. The text is well written, and fits the photographs, so this is a much more coherent book than many photo-oriented coffee-table style books I've read lately. If you just want pretty pictures this book has plenty, but it is worth actually reading, too. The preachy stuff in the last few chapters got a bit annoying, though the idea of jellyfish as the ocean equivalent of noxious weeds seemed interesting enough to read more on later. ( )

Before I get into how much I learned from this fascinating book, be warned the writing is a bit rough at times. Just look at the subtitle to the book for a clue. The grammar is imprecise and sometimes he uses the same or similar words too close together; one of my peeves.

Other than that it’s a terrific book and has some terrific photography. I’ve always been a sucker for ocean exploration. I blame Jacques Cousteau. I’m not a diver so have to live vicariously through those who are.

So here’s a few of the things I learned from this book -

>>How specialized are the eyes of the deep sea squid (histioteuthis sp.) are. One is permanently angled upward to look for prey above while the other is directed downward and is adapted to the bioluminescent flashes that other animals make at this depth. It can see prey in both directions at the same time.

**That anglerfish are so spread out from one another in the deep that when a male finds a female he literally fuses his body to hers. Eventually his circulatory system becomes connected to hers. Then his internal organs and eyes degenerate. He’s just a portable sperm bank at this point. I guess there weren’t many more fish in the sea!

^^Orcas eat sharks. Not just sleepy, placid sharks, but active, robust predators like the great white. Jeez. Scientists are also debating whether to break the orca into multiple species based on where they live and hunt and what they eat. Specialization is coming to light.

~~Total magnetic reversal! The magnetic polarity of the earth is changeable and has changed from north to south over 150 times in the last 85 million years. We can tell by ridges of rock left behind while the planet’s crust changed shape. Wow. Did not know.

{}The scaly foot snail has that name because it uses bits of iron to cover itself in little plates like armor. It lives on the hydrothermal-vent chimneys in the Dragon Vent Field and is the only known animal to use iron sulfide as a defense weapon.

There’s tons of stuff like this all through the book and even if you know a lot about marine life, you’re bound to find something you didn’t. Or just pick it up to marvel at the photos of rare and unthinkable animals. Make sure you get the second edition though, it’s about twice as thick as the first and has another decade of research in it. Great stuff. ( )

I remember being so excited over seeing the pictures in a magazine of the very strange fish that live in The Mesopelagic Zone which is 660 feet to 3,300 feet below the surface of the ocean. Such strange looking fish! So I immediately picked this book to read on Amazon Vine and was not disappointed. Creatures of the Deep by Erich Hoyt, Second Edition Updated and Expanded is a delight!

Are you interested in the strange and newly discovered? We are just becoming aware of these creatures in the deepest parts of the ocean and there is so much more to discover. In the past, what lived in the deep oceans was considered to be monsters. The author thinks that we need to appreciate and protect them as our friends.

Creatures of the Deep is filled with gorgeous color photos of the inhabitants of the oceans. The general public is not familiar with most of them. The sea is stacked with layers of different ecosystems. This book shows representatives of the creatures that live in each layer and what is characteristic of each layer. Some of the pictures are so spectacular that you can only stare at them in wonder.

A variety of questions are answered. To tickle your fancy, here is a list of a few:

1. Does the octopus or squid have a more complex brain?
2. What organ must the squid’s food pass through in order for it to eat?
3. Which should you fear the most? A sand tiger fish or a miniscule dionflagellate phytoplankton?
4. Why can you see creatures that travel through the middle black layer of the ocean?

The disappearance of the Malaysian Flight 370 has taught us that there is a lot of debris in the ocean, that there are five ocean gyres in our world. This frightening news makes us aware of how important it is to start cleaning up the ocean and protect all the creatures of the ocean.

I highly recommend this book to all who care about and are interested in ocean life.

I received this book as a pick from Amazon Vine but that in no influenced my thoughts or feeling in my review. ( )

This is The Discovering My World series